This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” says the Lord God; “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!” Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. [NRSV]

Sackcloth, baldness, morning only child, a bitter day.

Sackcloth, baldness and morning, oh my!

Sackcloth, baldness and morning, oh my!

Sackcloth, baldness and morning, oh my!

• Sackcloth: A sign of sinfulness
• Baldness: A sign of unhealthiness
• Morning an Only Child: Grief for this generation and the next
• Bitter Day: A sign of our separation from God.

Sending a famine instead of a fruit basket.

Not a famine of land, bread or thirst
But a famine of HEARING the words of the Lord.
God’s bringing a basket that we fill find as empty.
• If I bring fruit every day, and no one takes even a bite, it will eventually spoil
• If I bring healthy snacks and no one even samples, we will eventually starve
• If I bring hope for this generation and the next and no one trusts and believes, we have nothing left.

The basket is full of unwanted, un-tasted, un-sampled, un-digested, un-used nourishment: It lies in waste (or lingers in our waists)

Seeking and not finding, Knocking and nothing opening, Asking and receiving none.

The question of the day is
how long will the famine take?
How many attacks can we stand?
How many bodies left on the ground?
How many reports of violence before we are numb?

Where is the fruit basket?

• The basket of milk and honey?
• The basket of power and grace?
• The basket of truth and certainty?
• The basket of goodness and peace?

We want that fruit basket, then
1. Why not eat it when it is placed in front of you?
2. Why wait until there are famine and ruin?

Today is the day for feasting on the Word of God.

• Open and read it
• Read and share it
• Share and sing it
• Sing and Teach it
• Teach and live it
• Live it and find the God, who loves us, living with us, still.